Horned myolania is the largest tortoise ever inhabited on Earth.

The largest land tortoises living on Earth today are elephant or Galapagos tortoises, large individuals of which reach a length of 1.8 meters. But they will seem like cute babies compared to myolania - the largest of all turtles that ever lived on land. The body sizes of these reptiles along with the tail reached 5 meters, and two original horns adorned their head.

The ancestors of the natives of Australia and the islands of Melanesia, who lived only 2-3 thousand years ago, had a unique opportunity to observe living myolanias. This species from the suborder of crypto-tortoises was not only the largest land tortoise in the entire history of the Earth, but also had a very outstanding appearance. Two solid horns decorated the angular triangular shape of the turtle's head, and bone spikes covered the long tail with a dense layer. But neither the original appearance nor the powerful armor saved this species from extinction. Paleontologists believe that these turtles, who lived on the planet at least from the time of the Oligocene (33-28 million years ago), were victims of the primitive people of Australia and the adjacent islands: such a large and slow species was a welcome prey for hunters of that era.

Despite their grandiose sizes, land myolanias were completely harmless and ate only plant foods. The first fossils of this species were discovered in the Australian state of Queensland, in the northeast of the continent at the end of the 19th century. Due to the insufficient amount of material found, at first they were mistaken for large extinct lizards, but later, when paleontologists discovered parts of the shell and bones of the skull, they were assigned to turtles. According to researchers, the last population of these amazing reptiles lived on the islands of New Caledonia only 2,000 years ago.